Higher Wages Lure Nervous Syrians Back to Lebanon 

Reuters, Arab News

BEIRUT, 22 April 2005 — Syrian workers who fled Lebanon fearing attacks from Lebanese angry over Syrian dominance are trickling back, some drawn by job offers from bosses unable to replace their cheap labor.

Tens of thousands of Syrian workers fled Lebanon after the assassination of ex-premier Rafik Al-Hariri in February. The killing, which many Lebanese blamed on Damascus, prompted large anti-Syria protests and a string of attacks on Syrian workers.

Syrian laborer Abdel Aal Abu Aswad left Lebanon a few days after Hariri’s death. “I was afraid,” the 36-year-old father of three said on the Beirut building site where he works.

But he was enticed back by a 25 percent pay rise from his Lebanese boss. “They are looking for workers and not finding them,” he said. Abu Aswad now earns $20 a day, more than double the amount he can make in Syria.

“I’m not at all happy here, but I have a family to support.”

Lebanon’s pro-Syrian group Hizbollah said in March 20 to 30 Syrian workers had been killed in anti-Syrian attacks. It was the first word that Syrians had been killed.

Some Syrian workers said they felt safe in Shiite and Sunni Muslim parts of Beirut, but not in its predominantly Christian quarters. “I have not encountered problems but I have heard of problems,” said Abu Aswad, who first came to Lebanon in 1992.

Syria, which first sent troops to Lebanon in 1976, has dominated its smaller neighbor since the 1975-1990 civil war. But harried by international pressure, Damascus is set to finish withdrawing its troops this month.

Lebanese have long looked down on the hundreds of thousands of Syrians working in Lebanon illegally. Some blame them for unemployment among Lebanese, who cannot compete with the cost of Syrian labor.

Both Syrian laborers and their Lebanese bosses say workers are trickling back over the border.

Their departure had drained a pool of cheap labor which many Lebanese businesses have come to depend on.

In the mountains above Beirut, building sites once bustling with Syrian laborers are dormant.